Academic (personal) Integrity

Students are often threatened with "Academic Integrity" violations.  As a professor, I encounter students who have violated the Academic Integrity policy more often than people realize.  In many situations, students do not realize they are exhibiting a lack of academic/personal integrity.  So, this blog will attempt to highlight some of the ways that these violations occur AND why it is important to safeguard your personal integrity.

One of the best ways to learn is by working with a small group.  As group members discuss various approaches and ideas, each person gets to figure out what they do and do not know.  However, even though a group may come up with a joint solution to a problem, it is the responsibility of each member to solve the problem on their own.  This ensures that mistakes are minimized AND that each person understands the way to solve the problem.  Too often in science, some group members assume that the group solution (or the solution of one person) is correct.  Part of what makes science unique is that scientists verify what they and others do at every opportunity.

This was observed on the Take-Home portion of the exam.  For example, many people used the same tangent line for #5.  From our class example, the odds are small that each person will draw the tangent line the same way.  This means each person's slope should be slightly different from everyone else's.  This is true for any experiment.  Even though the equipment and procedure may be the same, the exact measurements may not.  This ensures that when the results match from group to group, the procedure is valid.

A real-world example occurred with the Hubble Space Telescope when it was first in space.  Scientists could not get Hubble to focus on various stars.  It was eventually discovered that there was a discrepancy between two different quality assurance checks on how the mirror was machined.  Instead of verifying the results of the two checks, someone decided to pick one and everyone followed this decision.  It turns out that they selected the incorrect quality assurance check.  This led to extra expense and lost experimental time, not mention the people who lost their jobs because of this oversight and the company that went out of business because of their damaged reputation.  That is why it is important to agree on a solution, then have each person in the group verify the results on their own.  Otherwise, that person is not showing personal (and professional) integrity.  Yes, it is easier to follow a "group" result.  But, to safeguard the science process, each person is to question everyone's results, especially their own.

Another common example of academic integrity involve plagiarism.  This is related to the above "copying a solution" example.  Whenever scientists (and everyone in a science class is considered a scientist) present information to others, it is assumed that the work is theirs.  In fact, it is each scientists duty to report (via citations) any work that they used in developing their presentation.  However, simply copying another's work and re-presenting as their own is a lie.  Scientists are expected to do their own work and to build on the work of others, while acknowledging the efforts of others.  That is why it is important to cite any and all resources that do not come from an individual's own efforts and mind.  And, each scientist is to be every vigilant to instances of plagiarism.  There have been numerous occasions where people have lost their jobs and careers because they have presented the work of others as their own.

So, what does that mean in an introductory physics class? It means the same thing as every aspect of your life, or it should.  Are you lying to yourself or others by copying the work of others?  Are you taking the easy way out by not verifying the solution on your own?  Are you letting "grades"/grants seduce you into unethical behavior?  And, are you more afraid of failing than actually taking the risk to learn the material outright?  (This last one can be quite scary because it may tell you that you are not as good in an area that you need/want it to be.)  These are all questions that each student/scientist needs to ask and answer themselves.  As your instructor, I can try to educate you about personal/academic integrity.  I can even threaten to apply the Academic Integrity policy for each and every violation.  However, it is up to each person to decide if they will live an ethical life.  My hope is that each person routinely evaluates their behavior to follow a life-path that exhibits personal and professional integrity.

As with any post, feel free to comment on this post.

Practice makes perfect?

We've all heard this expression before.  The question is, what do you practice to become "perfect?"  Following up on my previous blog, the trick is to figure out what needs improvement and how to make the improvements.  To do that requires the ability to constructively evaluate one's performance, seek out additional feedback, determine appropriate activities to help, and then, as the Nike ads say, "Just Do It!"  Sounds simple, right?

In learning to play hockey, I spend a lot time reading about certain skills and drills that can help those skills.  For instance, making the transition from forward to backward skating without losing any speed is an important skill, especially if one wants to seriously play defense, which is what I am working toward.  I've read about various things to help make that 180 degree turn without losing speed.  I've talked with coaches and players about how they learned it.  And, I've spent many hours on the ice trying various things.  After four and a half years, I can turn 180 degrees, but I lose a lot of speed in the process and I can only turn in one direction.  (It's important to be able to turn both ways because the action may be on the other side and I would need to see it to be able to defend against it.)

So, what do I do to go from here to improve?  Well, one of the things I did this summer was go to summer camp (hockey class) and listen to instructors first tell me what was wrong, then provide some new ideas how to improve.  After that, I had a lesson with a skating coach.  Together, I found out that my backwards skating was weak (I am not putting enough weight on the glide leg).  Because of this, I often feel off-balance and increase the odds of falling.  The recommendation:  until I can glide backwards on one leg, I am not to try too many of the other backwards or turning drills.  Without that balance, I will end up developing bad habits and possibly scaring myself more than I already am about falling.  So, before my surgery, I was spending much of my skate time working on the simple (yet very scary) task of gliding on one skate.  I still suck at skating backwards and the 180 degree turns, but it is slowly improving.

I find physics to be similar.  You have to first figure out the problem areas before you can work on tasks to improve.  That is where your group, others in the course, physics majors (as tutors or staffing the Help Room), and the instructor can help.  While you might not see what areas are causing you trouble, the "outsiders" may be able to spot something.  In fact, this is one of the reasons why I ask students to stop by so often.  I can more easily spot issues a student is having in the course than most people because I have been doing this for over 20 years.  Then, once we figure out the issue(s), we can develop a course of action to make improvements.

And, before those of you who are not having issues think it's safe to relax, you also have to practice.   As with any activity (like music or sports), each time you learn something new, you have to practice it to reinforce what you learn.  Practice helps to overcome problem areas and practice helps to keep what you've learned.  So, continue to practice (via the various worksheets and online activities) to learn from your mistakes and to improve.

As always, should you have a comment you would like to share, please feel free to add your two cents worth.  In the meantime, practice, practice, practice!